by Jon Sauve
Jeremy's grin subsided a bit. "So? You think those guys out there are loyal to me? Nuh-uh. They're high up, dude. They give me protection so I can have my fun, and I give them money. I'm not a player, so I get to wander a bit. But if I tried to leave, they'd can me as fast as that tall geek laying outside the front door."
"What're they cops, or something?" Ben asked.
"Does it really matter? Does it? All you need to know, my fine chocolate friend, is that only I can call them off, and in order for me to call them off I have to be alive. Also, if I let the game continue, I think that y'all might murder me. So we have a bit of a catch-22 here."
"So?" Beth asked. "Just run outside. We won't be able to follow you."
"Jesus Christ, am I talking to a moron here? They will fucking shoot me! How much clearer do I have to be? They catch any wind that shit has gone south, that I have lost control of the game, I'm done. They take this shit very seriously."
A minute of silence passed. We had time to think now that we knew, or at least had reason to believe, that Mary was alive.
"Where is she?" Ben asked. "Let's do this and get it over with."
"Great!" Jeremy's grin was back in full force. "Now, if you would just follow me..."
He turned and started up the stairs. With a shared look of bewilderment and shock between us, Beth and Ben and I went up after him.
Jeremy waited for us on the landing, giving the watch on his wrist a look of exaggerated length. Then he looked at us, rolled his eyes, and let out a sigh.
“Sometime before Christmas,” he said.
Beth, at the front of our group, stopped on the final step below the landing. Jeremy, of above average height, was only barely taller than her in this configuration.
"Where?" Beth asked.
"Where, indeed?" Jeremy's grin had achieved comic proportions. He looked past Beth, straight down into my eyes. "Your friend Owen there should know. It's where he put two guys down."
Beth couldn't help but look at me. Ben, who already knew about my misadventures, didn't react at all.
"Actually," Jeremy said, "why don't you come up here and lead the pack, Owen?"
"It's Orin," I said.
"Whatever. Stupid name anyway, isn't it? But you're not stupid, are you? You're actually pretty smart, coming in here like some kind of socially retarded nerd. Little did we know, there's actually a stone cold killer in you. Now get up here."
What choice did I have? I went up, clutching my lantern, feeling Beth's eyes on the back of my neck.
"Take us there," Jeremy said. "Give us the grand tour."
Yes, I certainly did know where to go. I'd already been there twice, and I had been hoping not to make it three times. But I went, holding the lantern high like a good tour guide. We turned the corner, and approached the room where Max and Oogie lay. At some point, Oogie had stopped screaming.
The door was shut. There was light within, strong and solid enough to suggest the presence of more than one lantern.
"You can open it," Jeremy said. "Elden won't bite."
I pushed the door open. I already knew from past experience that it didn't latch.
I saw Mary first. She was face down on the filthy bed, quiet and still. I could see her back rising and falling. So, she was alive. Her hands were tied behind her back, and her ankles were bound too, but I doubted such measures were necessary.
The bodies of Max and Oogie had been removed. Elden was nearby, staring out the window, from which he had removed the boards. He turned around as I came in. He barely looked at me for more than a second. Everything about him seemed detached and vacant, like he barely realized he was here. There was no blood anywhere on him that I could see, not even a smudge of dirt or a crease in his clothing.
To my deprived eyes, the room was lit very amply by two lanterns, one on either side of the bed.
I saw Mary tense up. She probably wanted to look around, but didn't dare.
"Yo, Elden," Jeremy said, coming in behind me. "So, we got the deal. Let's show them the money, yeah?"
"Wait a second," Ben said.
Jeremy looked at him. "Yes, brotha?"
Ben ignored the jibe. "Call off your assholes first."
"My assholes?" Jeremy shook his head, and let his mouth hang open. Then he waved a hand like a fussy aristocrat. "Whatever. Do it, Elden."
The other man nodded his ponderous head and reached for a radio on the windowsill.
"Game over," Elden said into the radio; his voice sounded like sand being tossed into a wheelbarrow. "Arms down."
There was no reply, but a burst of static and a clicking sound followed when Elden took his thumb off the transmit button. A light flashed and arced briefly in the night outside, and then there came the quiet rumble of an engine.
"In our hands now," Jeremy said to his companion, then he looked at us. "Money's through here. Shit, I can't tell you how relieved I am to get this over with..."
He shuffled through the door into the bathroom like a tired old man. We followed him in, Beth ahead, Ben in the middle, and me at the back, with my lantern now switched on.
We found Jeremy stooped over the edge of the bathtub, touching and toying with something inside. There was a scraping sound, a mechanical click, and then he twisted his back and let himself fall into the tub.
An explosion and a flash of light filled my head. I was stumbling, thrown off balance. My elbow slammed into something as I fell. I came to with my cheek pressed against the rim of the toilet and my arms folded over my head.
Beth had also dropped to the floor, folding herself up like someone caught in a tornado.
Ben was still standing. In the light of my lantern I saw a thin stream of blood running down his right arm and over the shiny head of the ax, where it joined the crusted remains of older blood.
Of Jeremy, I saw nothing other than his lower legs, twisted and jutting out over the edge of the bathtub. His feet were moving, as if he were struggling to extricate himself from the tight quarters, but my ears were still ringing and I couldn't hear anything.
Ben dropped to the floor after a few seconds. He was choking on blood, clutching at his neck. His eyes moved around the room, but focused on nothing.
Elden was coming into the room. He had no weapon. Thinking fast, I flung my arm like a trebuchet and launched the lantern at him. It collided with the neanderthal slant of his forehead and shattered; Elden wheeled backward noiselessly, tripped over Beth's long legs, and went falling into the bedroom.
The lantern had landed on the threshold of the door. By its waning and flickering light, I saw Jeremy begin to rise from the tub. I had just enough time before the light died completely to look at the ax and fix its location in my mind, so that when I dove for it my fingers closed around its handle with precision.
Another click, another flash that seemed to split my skull with its intensity. A burst of lightning, by which I saw Jeremy for a split second, a grimace of concentration - maybe even fear - on his face.
The bullet went high. I still couldn't hear very well, but I felt the shrapnel of the wall tiles blasting against my neck.
I got up on my knees and swung the ax toward the tub. Jeremy saw the move coming; I hit nothing but air, and nearly clobbered myself on the returning orbit.
I knew that, even now, Jeremy was readjusting the gun, getting ready to let out a third shot. There was no way I would be able to get away in time, so I just had to make sure he missed again. As quietly as I could manage, I tossed myself to the right and flattened myself against the crusty tiles of the floor.
The third shot came not a second after that. Again, it missed me, flying instead through the space where I had been a moment before.
"ELDEN!" Jeremy screamed, his voice cracking on the second syllable. I could just barely hear him; a voice at the end of a long tunnel filled with wind.
Elden came sweeping in like a ghost, and fell upon Beth. She was screaming as well, fighting and kicking and clawing.
I flipped over o
nto my back, sat up, and swung the ax in a high arc. Elden caught the handle on his forearm, and shoved it back so hard that his wrist slammed me in the nose. I fell down again, and cracked my head against the side of the tub. Good thing it was hollow molded plastic rather than something solid.
"The ax!" Jeremy said. "Get it!"
Elden got it. I was dazed from the blow to my head, and couldn't do much to fight him. He was strong as a bull.
At that point I was pretty sure I was fucked. Instead of trying to fight, I just lay back on the floor and let things happen.
Jeremy stepped onto my gut as he got out of the bathtub, and made sure to put all his weight down on that foot as he walked over me. Then, in the light of a lantern Elden had brought in from the bedroom, Jeremy bent over and grabbed Ben by the shirt. He hauled the dying man up and propped him against the tub.
"Watch now, chocolate dude," Jeremy said. "This is what losing looks like."
But Ben couldn't watch anything. The light in his eyes was fading away.
Beth was already gone from the bathroom, and Elden soon came to drag me out as well. He grabbed me by the ankles, mistaking my apathy for unconsciousness, and dragged me out across carpet strands so stiff and crusty that they stood straight up like nails.
Elden left me at the foot of the bed and returned to the bathroom. I guess he wasn't worried about me anymore. I sat up and looked around. In the light of the remaining lantern, I saw Mary staring at me above the tape on her mouth. She had twisted around onto her side and bent herself into a right angle. I looked back at her. There was defeat and sorrow in her eyes, and I could feel both in mine. She nodded at me, and I nodded back.
Beyond the bed, lying on the floor out of my sight, Beth was crying loudly and angrily. When Elden came back into the room, she suddenly sprang up and threw herself at him. She almost, almost got her fingers around the ax, but he planted a hand on her sternum and shoved her back. Her legs hit the edge of the bed and she somersaulted backward, kicking Mary in the shoulder. Beth righted herself and crawled over to embrace the other woman. Whether to protect Mary or comfort herself, I don't know.
"Stay there," Elden told her softly. He could have been talking to the family dog.
Jeremy came through the door, wiping bloody hands on a towel he had picked up somewhere.
"The other one?" Elden asked him.
Jeremy laughed and shook his head. "Dead. Shit, that was a happy accident wasn't it? Just happened to get the mofo holding the ax. Looks like we made it, buddy."
He hooked a bloodstained hand around Elden's neck and pulled him in. Elden said something that I couldn't hear.
"Yeah, but that's his own fault," Jeremy said. "Same old level of enthusiasm, but without the same level of skill. Not a good combo." He started looking around the room. "Where did you put... Oh, I see him. Shit, the muzzle flash messed up my eyes."
He was on his way over to me, rubbing his right thigh and limping slightly. He must have twisted the leg a bit falling into the tub.
"Orin," he said, standing over me. "Orin, my man. It was a good try, but in the end we outsmarted you. Kind of a pity. You were a worthy adversary. In fact, I don't think we've ever had anyone like you in any of our 'scavenger hunts.' Have we, Elden?"
"There was that teacher," Elden grunted. He was back at the window, staring out into the dark.
"Yeah, but I don't think he could shake a stick at old Orin here," Jeremy replied. He was still staring at me. "Listen, pal, I hate to do it, but we're gonna have to get rid of the evidence. You know... kill you. Really sorry about it. But we got a cleanup crew coming in a few hours, and we really have to make sure you're dead."
I could feel the bed shaking against my shoulder. Beth and Mary were both trembling, making sounds like scared kittens.
"Don't worry, though," Jeremy said, looking up at them and smiling. "We'll make it easy and quick on you."
He lifted his gun, dropped the magazine from it into his hand, and peered into its side window with one eye shut.
"You got another clip?" he called to Elden. "Only three bullets left in this one. Might be enough, but..."
Elden pulled something off his belt and held it out behind him. "Here."
Jeremy dropped the other clip to the floor carelessly and went over to grab the new one. As he reached for it, Elden snatched it away and turned to face him.
Jeremy took a step back. "Okay. What's up?"
"Max is dead," Elden said simply. "I don't have to listen to you anymore."
"What?"
Elden looked uncertain, and a little sad. "I don't have to be this anymore."
"Be what?" Jeremy said.
"Your slave."
I didn't really believe what I was hearing or seeing at this point. I was so confused that I forgot to try and escape.
"What the fuck are you on about?" Jeremy reached for the clip again. "Give me the fuckin' thing!"
Elden did bring his hand around at that point, but it was the one holding the ax. Before Jeremy could do more than flinch, the blade of it passed his throat in one flick. Jeremy stumbled back, felt at his neck, tripped over nothing and slammed down onto the floor.
Like Ben, he was staring but not seeing. Unlike Ben, the panic in his eyes was obvious. His fingers were scrambling in an increasing flow of blood. He tried and failed to grab the slick flesh and pinch it together, then simply shoved the palm of his hand against the wound. When even that didn't work, he shoved his thumb and forefinger into the gash. I didn't know for sure what he was trying to do by that, but I've thought about it since then - hard to get it out of my head, really - and now I realize he was probably trying to find the artery and squeeze it shut.
I pulled my gaze away from Jeremy only because I saw Elden moving from the corner of my eye. He looked tired but happy, like a man who just dropped a heavy load he had been carrying for way too long.
"You don't have to watch it," he said. He pulled a sheet off the bed, out from under Beth and Mary like a magician, and draped it over Jeremy. The blood soaked through immediately, and I could still see his feet twitching, but at least I didn't have to look at his face.
Elden went past me then, dragging the ax on the floor behind him, like a man walking back up the long driveway he has just shoveled. Then he seemed to realize he didn't need it any longer, and propped it against the wall next to the door.
"I'll be downstairs," he said. "You can come down whenever."
I watched him go, the narrow slope of his shoulders and the flat square of his head dissolving into the shadows of the hallway.
When I got to my feet, Beth was already trying to get the bindings off Mary. The taller woman was still sobbing, her throat making little clicking sounds. The tears were blocking her vision, making her hands clumsy. I went to help, feeling totally cold and detached.
Mary was weak between us as we left the room. She seemed to be fainting over and over; her eyelids kept fluttering, and she kept sagging down so that the tops of her feet scraped along the floor. But when we got to the stairs, she had no choice but to cling to consciousness. She went bug-eyed and gripped the banister like it was a rope holding her to sheer face of a mountain. I wondered what might have happened to her in the time she was alone with Elden, and this disturbing thought made my heart pulse. Hopefully nothing. Hopefully, she was just dealing with the shock of the whole situation, now that it had finally come to an end.
Elden was sitting at the big table in the common area, facing parallel to its edge and staring off toward the front door. He looked around briefly when we arrived, then went back to watching the darkness.
"Give them a little while to pack things away and move out," he said softly. "Then you'll have a couple of hours to get away before the cleanup crew gets here. Plenty of time."
It seemed he wanted us to wait, so I sat down, suddenly without any strength at all. Beth pulled out two chairs, helped Mary into one, then sat in the other as heavily as I had done.
Elden reached around to sc
ratch the meaty cylinder of his neck. "I've been wanting to get away for a long time." He looked over at us, again only for a second.
I heard Beth utter some entreaty to God, and then she was crying again.
"Sorry about..." Elden shrugged. "Everything, I guess. I didn't do any of it tonight. No, not this time. I didn't kill anyone. Only Jeremy."
"Why?" Beth asked.
Elden shrugged again. "I guess I thought I should take something from him for a change. Like he took my life and my soul and everything else." He looked at us a third time, and finally held his gaze. "I am sorry, for whatever that's worth."
He was looking straight at me. I nodded. It was probably the most surreal moment of my life; nodding at a guy who had, for all I know, genuinely been trying to kill me just a little while ago.
Elden's eyes went back to the hall. The hotel was silent. Truly silent, this time, without even the rushing sound of my heart to fill my ears. I recognized that I was in a state of shock. My fingers were tingling, and I no longer felt any of the aches and pains I had accrued throughout the night. Mary was deeper in it than me. Her knees were up, her arms crossed over them, her chin perched on her hands and her wide eyes fixed on the floor.
We sat like that for a while. Fifteen, twenty minutes maybe. Beth stopped crying, sat numb for a time, then said, "What about you?"
Elden looked at her slowly, as if eavesdropping on a conversation between others, and saw her looking at him. I don't think I have ever seen, or will ever see again, someone look as exhausted as he did right then. More surprising was the fact that he looked human.
"Nobody cares about me," he said. "Not even I care about me. You shouldn't either. I'll stay here. Someone has to be here to take the fall for this. It should be someone who was involved in setting it up."
He shifted in his seat, hiked up his shirtsleeve, and glanced at a cheap looking digital watch.
"They should be long gone now," he said. "You should go, too."
Beth sat up slightly to get her hand in her pocket, and fished out her keys. Elden sighed and shook his head.
“No,” he said. “You won’t be able to drive. Jeremy had his sniper friends sabotage your cars.”